How American Transmission Co. Used Trust Data to Drive Growth While Maintaining the Employee Experience

With the energy industry undergoing its biggest transformation in decades, American Transmission Co. (ATC) faced a wave of change, including a CEO transition, organizational restructuring, a growing capital investment plan, and significant workforce growth.

Meet American Transmission Co.

VIEW COMPANY PROFILE

Employees

639 U.S.-based Employees

Industry

Manufacturing & Production

HQ Location

Pewaukee, WI

To ensure employees remained engaged and aligned, ATC paired business performance metrics with Trust Index™ data. The result was higher retention, stronger communications, and a culture that was ready to scale.

Wisconsin-based American Transmission Co. (ATC) is a company of 700 employees that owns and operates electric transmission lines and substations within the Midwest.

Known for its outstanding culture, ATC puts its people at the core of everything it does, creating a workplace where employees feel valued, supported, and connected.

The company has been Great Place To Work® Certified™ since 2014, with 94% of employees saying it’s a great place to work. As well, 97% of employees say new hires are made to feel welcome, and 95% say their colleagues care about one another. ATC has been named a Fortune Best Workplace in Manufacturing & Production™ eight times since first appearing on the list in 2016.

Key Outcomes

Turnover rate 16 points below the industry average

ATC’s turnover rate is just 2.56%, compared to a 19% average at other U.S. manufacturing and production companies.

Back-to-back years of double-digit revenue growth

Since 2022, ATC has averaged 10.15% YOY revenue growth. This is amid a period of disruptive change in the energy industry.

78% of employees say management keeps them informed

ATC’s leadership maintained high trust levels despite high uncertainty, with 78% of employees saying that management involves people in decisions that affect their jobs.

91% of employees report high discretionary effort

Among ATC employees, 76% say that their colleagues adapt quickly to change and 91% say that people are willing to give extra to get the job done.

Why ATC partnered with Great Place To Work

ATC has long recognized that different employees have different needs, especially across generations. By partnering with Great Place To Work, the company gained deeper insight into those differences, helping leaders better support employees and create an experience where everyone can thrive.

“Great Place To Work gives us the consistency we need to build a stronger organization,” says Katie Monfre, manager of internal communications & change at ATC. “It helps us track long-term trends so we can stay focused on what matters, while also finding ways to improve our business and create an employee experience where people feel they can thrive.”

This partnership has also helped ATC to refine its brand story and purpose, says Lori Lorenz, executive vice-president & chief people, culture & customer officer at ATC.

“As a leader, one of the most valuable things to come out of our partnership with Great Place To Work is understanding our ‘why,’” she says. “Great Place To Work has really helped us to tell a story that is uniquely ours as an organization.”

Challenge
How to maintain culture during a time of significant change?

Over the past few years, the energy industry has undergone its biggest infrastructure change in decades. “It’s the largest transformation since air conditioning was invented,” explains Katie.

At the same time, ATC’s CEO was retiring, prompting a leadership transition, full organizational restructuring, and a refresh of the company’s vision and mission. ATC was also expanding both its workforce and use of external labor to deliver a capital investment plan that was projected to grow from $600 million to $1.7 billion. With a 25% year-over-year growth trajectory and workforce needs increasing 15% to 20% annually, the company needed to adjust existing processes to gain efficiencies while growing the skills and capabilities of its workforce to meet the new and changing complexities of the business and new ways of working.

It was all an exciting time for ATC’s future, but such significant, rapid transformation can harm the employee experience if it’s not handled correctly.

ATC recognized that successfully navigating this transformation would require strong change management. While some employees would feel the impact of change more directly than others, the goal was the same for everyone: ensuring every employee had the resilience, support, and confidence to grow alongside the organization.

Solution
Couple business KPIs with engagement data to ensure employees and leaders were aligned

ATC launched Project Ramp-Up, a company-wide initiative designed to align its people, processes, strategy, and technology. The goals were to prepare their workforce for the coming changes and ensure every team understood how its work contributed to the company’s broader objectives while also meeting its own goals.

While the initiative touched every part of the business, ATC believed its success would ultimately depend on its people. The company made culture a central pillar of the transformation, investing in the skills, leadership, and employee experience needed to help its workforce adapt, grow, and support the organization’s long-term success.

To learn how different segments of the organization were experiencing the workplace, ATC created employee input committees and relied on the Trust Index™ and pulse surveys. Sometimes, they found they weren’t hitting the mark — “And that’s okay, that’s going to happen,” says Katie — so they dug into the data to determine what needed adjusting.

Trust Index questions helped gauge how employees were doing, how well the company was communicating, and whether employees felt prepared for where the organization was heading. ATC then used that data in conjunction with business KPIs, pairing it against metrics such as turnover, growth, and revenue.

“We were able to show that as employee engagement increased, so did our business KPIs,” says Katie. “When you can demonstrate that connection, it’s much easier to earn leadership buy-in and make employee engagement a business priority."

Outcome
Trust translated into measurable results

By regularly monitoring Trust Index results and responding to the dips, ATC didn’t just maintain its employee experience; it continuously improved it.

Today, the company’s engagement metrics exceed industry benchmarks across key measures, including intent to stay, agility, effort, and confidence in leadership. In an industry where just 65% of employees say their employer is a great place to work, 91% of ATC employees do. Some other notable results:

78% of ATC employees say management involves people in decision-making vs. 57% at typical manufacturing and production companies
91% say they intend to work there a long time vs. 67%
76% say people adapt quickly to changes vs. 66%
91% say colleagues are willing to give extra effort vs. 58%

ATC’s advice to other organizations facing disruption is to pay attention to the people experience. Take the time to stop and listen to what they are going through. Make adjustments so employees can focus on the work they need to do rather than what the organization hasn’t done for them.

“When you think about those keystone things in a business that equal success, there’s none higher on the list than trust,” says Katie. “If your people don’t trust what your company is trying to do, what is the value of the work that they do? If they don’t trust in their leadership, you cannot succeed. Use Great Place To Work to measure that trust, to see that you are on track with however your company chooses to lean into that.”

How ATC develops effective leadership

ATC has a clear vision for what they want from their leaders, which they couple with Great Place To Work data. This data is shared with leaders so they’re aware of how their teams are reacting to them.

“Great Place To Work has helped us to understand the key components that are essential for leadership effectiveness,” says Lori. “As we’ve built out our leadership development efforts, it’s with some of those key components in mind.”

One of those key metrics is discretionary effort, which plays an important role in ensuring ATC can meet its commitments to customers. As such, it’s important for leaders to understand how they can use trust to draw that discretionary effort out of employees.

“There are some really great statements in the Trust Index talking about trust factors with your leadership,” says Katie. “When we look at that data, we can know whether our leaders are executing in the way we want them to, and we can trend that over time.”

Her advice is to think about what goals you are trying to achieve and then look for the Trust Index statement that aligns with that. From there, you can start measuring and build strategic plans around it.

“The great thing about Great Place To Work is it’s such a rich data set,” says Katie. “You can look at your goals and objectives and find data to support if you’re doing it correctly. It’s a great mechanism to create consistency year over year. You can take it to senior leaders to show that you are having the impact you’re looking for.”